My Games to Watch at GenCon 2013 List

GenCon 2013 is this week. August 15th – 18th are this years ‘Best Four Days in Gaming’ (according to GenCon itself). Events will start as early as Wednesday and continue through Monday or thereabouts. This year will be the 46th GenCon. Tons of games get released or previewed during GenCon and here are some of the personal highlights that I’ll be keeping an eye on or watching for. (these are listed merely by alphabetical order of company name).

Academy Games – ‘Freedom: The Underground Railroad’ – This is a very interesting topic for a game and from the buzz the game play is real good as well. Looking forward to hearing/seeing more.

AEG – The original version of Love Letter is being released and after playing Love Letter a bunch I am curious what the original artwork is like as well as any changes in game play.

Asmodee – ‘Rise of Augustus’ sounds like an extremely easy to learn gateway game that could potentially go over really well at the Library Game Days I hold. ‘Masqurade’ sounds like a mix of Citadels and Love Letter, two games I love. ‘Rampage’ is based off of one of my favorite arcade games from back in the day, you play as monsters destroying a city, the trick is that this is a dexterity game where you actually destroy stuff!

Catalyst Games: ‘Shadowrun: 5th edition’ might just be the best version of one of my favorite settings for an RPG ever! There is also ‘Crossfire’ which is their Shadowrun deck building game, Hostile Takeover which is their euro game, and Sprawl Gangers which is their mini’s game. Going to check each of these out individually.

Days of Wonder: ‘Relic Runners’ is their new game, I don’t know a lot about it, but it’s Days of Wonder and they almost NEVER miss.

Fantasy Flight: ‘Eldritch Horror’ looks to be a streamlined version of Arkham Horror which is much needed. Don’t get me wrong, I love Arkham Horror, but the rules are a bit tough at first. ‘Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak Expansion’ yet another must buy expansion for an awesome game. Also, I’m looking forward to some big surprise that you can always count on from Fantasy Flight as well as their awesome daily video coverage.

Fireside Games: ‘Dead Panic’ looks a bit like the great game Castle Panic, only better and zombie-er.

Gale Force Nine: ‘Firefly: The Board Game’ could be good, could be bad, gonna follow this and find out for myself.

Iello Games: ‘Phantom Society’ looks like another easy to learn game that might fit awesomely into my Library Game Day Collection.

Japanime Games: ‘Kromaster: Arena’ looks like compact board game version of a “Final Fantasy Tactics” type of game with amazing looking bits.

Libellud: ‘Dixit 4’ more awesome artwork for an already great game? where do I sign?

Ludonaute: ‘SOS Titanic’ looks like an interesting little co-op with a ‘flip book’ style board that shows the titanic sinking over time.

Paizo Publishing: ‘Pathfinder the Adventure Card Game’ might just be the hit of this years show. From what I’ve seen so far it looks like the first ever true Board Game/RPG/Deck Building mashup. Pick a Character, work together as a team, fight baddies, build up your character from fight to fight over multiple sessions! Can’t Wait!

Wizards of the Coast: ‘Lords of Waterdeep: Scoundrels of Skullport Expansion’ another must buy.

This isn’t everything I’ll be watching, just the highlights.

Want to learn more about what’s coming out? Check out this Geek List Here or check out a series of Dice Tower video’s Here. Board Game Geek will be streaming live during GenCon so look to their homepage for that, and watch for more video coverage from Fantasy Flight and the Dice Tower.